- WARS OF THE ROSES -
Hello and welcome back to Wars of the Roses. Here I've tried to draw a more primal, elemental picture of how the Rose families came to be and how the relationship between two siblings defined a generation of soeurs.
Set on the Norse-Celtic-medieval inspired continent of Lillian, three noble houses once united, now divided, feud and fight amongst each other. The clans of Chinensis, Foetida, and Gigantea were founded by the Rose saints, the women who established the time-honoured soeur tradition. The coming storm will force these now-warring houses to reconcile. Can they stop tearing at each other's throats to face the looming shadow? The approaching war will be decided by one brother and one sister, united as siblings, but fated to battle.
Modernity versus tradition.
Rose against Rose.
Sister versus Brother.
Whatever critiques you might have, I hope you find the story a darkly visceral re-imagining for the canon characters. ^.^
- Act II -
- Winterfrost Dawn -
It was a misty morning in the woodlands that divided the Chinensis family's empire from the dominions of the Foetida House. The snow had melted away briefly, leaving only traces of rime on the forest bed. The vertical, golden-knit banner of the Yellow Rose was held high amongst the branches of the cold trees, still and serene below the several dozen women that moved towards the contested territory in the central glen. The impeccably trained knights in plated armour were all sworn to live, love, and die by the crest of the Yellow Rose. On their own, they were formidable. Together, they were fearless and ferocious.
The horses of the cavalry clopped slowly along the soil and grass, calm but cautious.
The leader of the warriors raised a metal-plated hand. "Wait," she called. She lifted her hands to her jarl's horned helmet and slowly lifted it from her slightly red face. She let out a short puff of breath, visibly enjoying the fresh winter air of the woods. Her short, boyish hair didn't disguise her feminine lips, her shapely almond face. If anything, it accentuated her hard-nosed beauty. "I hear bated breathing. It's almost certainly an ambush."
"As observant as ever, Rosa Foetida en bouton. Your instinct for combat is unsurpassed," said the lieutenant behind her through a visor. She clutched the standard of the clan and her hand was shaking nervously, because she had been personally chosen by the Yellow bouton to hold her flag. Just being in her royal presence was electrifying, an unspeakable privilege. "Should we spread out?"
"No. Keep together. If we divide our forces, the Baroness of Chinensis will certainly pick us off one by one," cautioned Duchess Rei, second-in-command to Rosa Foetida. She had fought the girl called Sachiko many times before, and she had grown used to the shamelessly underhanded and cunning tactics the Red Baroness deployed against her. She had forgotten how many fine young women she had lost to the hand of Rosa Chinensis en bouton, but she had also lost count of how many Chinensis girls she put to the sword in revenge. Yes, indeed - they knew each other well, and almost too well.
This time, once again, her warning came slightly too late as an arrow exploded almost soundlessly from the dark shrubs, piercing into the lieutenant's throat. Gasps arose from the knights behind her. "Ambush!" came the cry from the Foetida knights.
"No!" screamed Rei. "Chisato-chan!"
"Honour... me... forgive..." Eyes cloudy behind her visor, no longer able to speak, the novice squire called Chisato Tanuma gave a dying wheeze through her punctured jugular, her neck spraying red gore, and toppled from her frightened, neighing horse. Rei watched in horror as the fluttering Foetida flag ominously fell with her, its embroidered fabric dirtied by the soil, wet dew, and Chisato's blood.
The women behind Rei cried out to each other in warning, raising their lances. "Brace yourselves!" shouted the enraged Duchess, reining in her nervous steed. "Charge the moment you see them. Dismount and fight them on foot if they try to flee." A dozen more arrows flew from unseen Chinensis bows and struck several Foetida crusaders, and the gurgling women collapsed too. Their riderless horses whinnied in panic, raring and on the verge of fleeing. "Don't panic!" barked the battle-hardened Rei in caution, sensing that her army was losing morale. "Hold our formation. Keep your composure. Avenge our sisters only when the time is right." Her eyes darted from one corner of the forest to another. Now where were they? And then her eagle-like sight spotted them: Chinensis women-at-arms, dressed in green, hiding in the camouflage of the towering bushes to their left flank.
"Brave of you, my valiant enemies," roared the bouton, "but I can see you!" She drew her greatsword from her scabbard, a long, powerful blade that few could even carry, let alone swing. "Take heart, my ladies! It is our time to avenge Chisato's repatriation to the Heroines' Hall."
"Hail, Saint Foetida! Hail, Rosa Foetida! Hail, bouton Foetida!" The rallying warcry emboldened Rei, who spurred on her horse, guiding it to the west. The steed obeyed and broke into a spirited charge. The stirrups jangled against the horse's armour. Caught off-guard, the Chinensis archers fired in panic from their hiding spot, but Rei already anticipated their trajectory and ducked under the arrows easily, while another projectile bounced off her horse's armoured helm harmlessly. Encouraged by their commander's sudden counterattack, the shouting Foetida crusaders followed, steeds' hooves thundering on the leaves and pines below. The Chinensis ambush group was panicking, and several of the women burst out from their hiding spot, making a run for it or drawing their swords. Others redrew and fired again, but this time only one Foetida knight fell off her horse. The rest were undaunted. Unhurt. Unwavering. Unimpressed.
Until they glimpsed the young lady emerging from behind the grove behind the thickets.
Dread blade, mounted on a gold guard encrusted with wine-red rubies. A pommel with the terrifying family crest of Chinensis. Black hair like a river of ravens.
And if the Foetida knights were unimpressed with her archers, the cold glare in her eyes indicated that she was even less enthusiastic about the mounted women. She shifted her thin, booted leg, sword inches above the grass. With that one gesture, Mother Time seemed to slow forbiddingly. The air seemed to hum and shimmer around her. Sewn on to the embroidered cloth of the knee-length, fur coat that covered her plate armour was the same coat-of-arms. Her glittering eyes were at once mournful and lonely, in all their bleak majesty.
Only Rei looked happy to see her. "Baroness Sachiko," she snarled, steering her horse in Sachiko's direction.
Rosa Chinensis en bouton said nothing, only waved a pompous hand.
A flurry of arrows rained down without warning from the green canopy above the Foetida knights, steel and wood breaking through the leaves and branches of the winter forest and showering on the shocked women. Yet more of Rei's loyal ladies fell, and they died screaming her name. "Sachiko! More games?" cried Rei, parrying an arrow that almost hit her face. She was no longer amused. "Come and grapple with me, hand-to-hand. Or I will make an example – "
Still on her horse, she lifted her spare spear from her steed's armoured flank, and twisting her waist, hurled it forward.
" – of one of your own!" she bellowed.
The blindingly swift, whooshing spear screamed past the oak trees and, before anyone could react, plunged into the breast of a clueless archer with a stupendous crunch. Its metal tip and the wet wood emerged, sliding, from inside her back. The poor bleeding girl didn't even know what had punched into her heart and lung, what six-foot weapon was lodged in her torso, before her eyes glazed over in eternal rest. Releasing her bow, she slumped and departed for the Heroines' Hall, her body sliding limply around the lance and crashing clumsily onto the ground.
Sachiko stared at Rei's challenge, and her tree-borne archers suddenly looked a bit paler. Rei's sharp, handsome eyes glinted.
"CLANSWOMEN!" she roared suddenly, and her entourage bellowed out a high-pitched reply.
"FALL AND PERISH!"
The surviving horsewomen now lifted their own spears, following their Duchess's example, and threw them up at the forest canopy. Sachiko whipped around, her eyes widening in outrage and shock as a shower of dozens of corpses – her corpses – plummeted from their branches, groaning, run through by javelins. The Foetida knights shouted out in victory as the shower of sloshing, raining bodies hit the ground and continued their charge, horses galloping for the struggling Chinensis warriors and leaving Rei to enjoy her tussle with the Baroness. Several knights dismounted, bloodlust spilling forth from their visors, as they swung wildly at the Chinensis women-at-arms. Sword met sword, and the overture was officially over. Pandemonium now ruled the forest as Chinensis blades struggled to cut past the plate armour of the crusaders. The melee had begun, and the Foetida clan had finally regained the advantage as their superior halberds and polearms hacked aside the now useless bows and arrows of the Chinensis women. Individuals were soon lost in collective chaos and delirium.
Meanwhile, Baroness and Duchess circled each other in a relatively spacious lot, surrounded by the towering, ancient trees that had grown here even in the age of the Rose saints. "That was an impressive idea," said Rei, her horse clopping at a distance. She slowly dismounted, patting her steed, and it trotted reluctantly away. "Luring us here was better than an open challenge to battle, but this forest is too large for either of our houses to control. Throwing lives and weapons at this region is simply a waste. Rosa Chinensis herself accepted that. Why can't you?"
"I do not believe I was wrong to try. You were always the superior strategist," said Sachiko, her eyes flashing icily in the cool morning mist. "Cool and collected, until Yoshino-chan took you by the leash, that is."
"And you were always the more arrogant one," growled Rei, raising her greatsword in a high guard above her head. It was the classic swordfighting stance invented by Saint Foetida herself, an extremely difficult technique mastered only by the very best. It was a physically taxing stance that left the wielder wide open to almost any attack. But one downward stroke was all that was needed to slay the enemy. "You never learn and return time and again to try and beat me. But can you outwit me at what I do best: swordfighting? Your body is fragile, much weaker than mine. I should know. I've kneaded it. Rubbed it. Tended to its soreness and aches." Rei's eyes shone. "We've touched each other as equals."
"Silence. Have I made myself clear?" Sachiko's position was far more cautious. She pointed her glittering, one-handed sword at Rei, at an angle where she could thrust at Rei's throat or chest if she stepped any closer. Defend by attacking faster…
Rei smiled, unafraid. She burst forward, swinging down her sword as she did so. The incredible speed and momentum forced Sachiko back, her arm shaking from the force of Rei's larger sword.
"How many blows can you take from me before your knees give way?"
Reeling, Sachiko narrowly dodged another swing from the swordmistress, gritting her teeth as her night-black tresses barely escaped the wind-cutting swipe of the double-edged blade. But to her shock, Rei was no longer moving with her sword – she had dropped it. There it was, lying on a heap of dead leaves and kicked up soil! What was the Duchess thinking? But Rei was suddenly moving much faster now. Caught completely off-guard by her newfound speed, Sachiko was unable to back away quickly enough. Rei's face was almost crushing against hers by the time Sachiko's arm suddenly sensed a sharp pain from the twisting lock that Rei forced her into. Rei shoved her towards a tree, and the Baroness cried out in frustration as she felt her body wrenched around. She felt her torso slamming against the tree, her wrists unable to break away from Rei's hands. She was pinned, her face lightly brushing the brown bark. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears while she calmly waited for an opportunity to break free. For now, she would have to put up with whatever her adversary threw at her. But what this nemesis said next was far from expected.
"Sachiko." Rei's eyes burned, her lips inches away from Sachiko's neck. The Baroness had half a mind to turn around, to look at Rei, but she could already feel the unspeakably intense gaze and did not want to meet it. "Do you hate me?"
"What in the Rose saints' name are you talking about? I will not debase myself to answer you," snapped Sachiko, annoyed that although Rei's grip was firm, even in the midst of adrenaline-pumped battle, it was still gentle. Yes, she was for the moment immobilized, but Rei did not make it uncomfortable or painful for her.
"Be honest!" cried Rei, her voice shaking. She stared into Sachiko's cold eyes, her own shining. "Be honest. Do you hate me, the only woman who has been able to match you in ambition? The only one who has ever been able to understand your uncertainty and self-doubt?"
Sachiko growled in frustration. "You are failing your knights."
"My knights will die for me," said Rei quietly. "I'm confident they won't begrudge me a conversation with you."
Sachiko closed her eyes in defeat. "You know, don't you?" pressed Rei, whispering carefully, tenderly, into Sachiko's ear. A gentle push, and it would have been a quiet kiss. "The prime Roses of ancient days passed down their rosaries to us, in an unbroken spiritual lineage… but those rosaries were themselves exchanged between the three saints. The legends say that Foetida gave Gigantea her cross. Gigantea gave hers to Chinensis, and then Chinensis imparted her rosary to Foetida. We live and die for rosaries that were once not of our own clans'."
"Get to the point. What are you trying to say?" snarled Sachiko.
"This centuries-long conflict is completely meaningless, an accident. We are violating the trust and legacy of the prime Roses. Sachiko… there is no one who admires you more than I do. I want to be your equal, perhaps even a friendly rival… but not your enemy. And I know you would hesitate in cutting me down too."
"It's too late for that," said Sachiko, her own regret seeping through her voice. She no longer struggled against Rei's hands. "It was too late the moment our grande soeurs chose us as their heirs. It has been this way for so long. You know this better than anyone. I know it better than anyone," she said unhappily. For some reason, she didn't feel like resisting anymore. "Either you release me and we continue our little duel, or you slay me here. But we cannot reconcile here. Perhaps nowhere."
"I know. I know that too well. Yet there might be a way…" Rei hesitated, but forced herself to muster the words about to pass her lips. She pressed her mouth against Sachiko's reddening earlobe, so intimately and secretively that there was no way anyone could hear her amidst the battle.
"My petite soeur is plotting a rebellion against Rosa Foetida."
Nothing could have prepared Sachiko for that prospect. "Impossible. Insurrection? A coup?" she hissed in disbelief, completely incredulous. "What is Dame Yoshino thinking? More scandalously, how could you let her...?"
Rei's shoulders shook. "I haven't been able to tell onee-sama, but I can't betray her, either. Yoshino is so important to me, and I will protect her with my life. But if her ambition against my grande soeur goes as far as this... the balance of power between our clans and our ties with our superiors will surely..." She stared piercingly into Sachiko's flabbergasted eyes. "Were we to form an alliance, you and I, Sachiko... it would be much easier to check the inevitable wrath of the Roses."
"Madness. Complete and utter insanity. I have never heard of a more unhinged, preposterous proposal from Yoshino-chan." Sachiko shook her head. "I cannot betray onee-sama over your petty family feud. I will not do so simply to protect Yoshino-chan. Why should I not let your house tear itself apart?"
Before Rei could elaborate, a Yellow knight staggered into the clearing, blood pouring out of her armour. She gritted her teeth. "Rosa Foetida en bouton! Urgent news!" she wheezed, on the verge of collapsing.
"What?" snapped Rei, releasing Sachiko and turning around. Sachiko staggered away from the tree, recovering her balance and rubbing her sore shoulder joint. She rubbed away some loose bark on her cheek. But Rei's desperate, torn plea had poured cold water on the energy she needed to point her sword at the Duchess. She just wasn't interested anymore. She glanced guiltily at Rei, who was looking slightly pitiful and more fearful by the second. "What is so accursedly urgent?"
"Duchess!" cried the warrior. "Dame Yoshino has been ambushed by Princess Shimako's crack boyars. Our contingent wasn't ready. The scouts report that she's been injured, but the clanswomen have taken her off the battlefield. With your permission, we will call a retreat."
"Yoshino?" whispered Rei, and it was as if she was an entirely different person upon hearing of the sorry news. Her voice faltered, her mouth trembled. "How far will it take to get there? How far are we stretched?" Her eyes suddenly widened. "Behind you!"
The Foetida knight tried to answer, but the curved blade of a Northern axe suddenly buried itself in the back of her skull and emerged past her ruptured forehead and nose. Blood and brain matter gushed from her nostrils and gaping mouth. "Geeeeeeeeuuuugh." She choked, unable to speak, her face split in half, and never heard Rei's scream. The slain woman folded and fell unceremoniously to the ground, revealing the murderer to the outraged Rei and shocked Sachiko.
Her eyes were grey, silver like her grande soeur's, as cold steel as all her predecessors'. Her gossamer hair was of a muted bright hue, darkened ever so slightly by the unhappy climate of the uppermost North. Sapphires and diamonds were lined along the small diadem wrapped around her crown and forehead. A soft fur coat draped around her small shoulders and evening-blue leggings covered her modestly, with the only exposed portion being her neck and the shimmering rosary between her breasts. Her bearskin boots almost made her look quite adorable, were it not for the Rus' handaxes decorated with steel sculpts of wolves' heads in each of her gloved fists.
"Princess Shimako!" breathed Rei. She backed off, her greaves sliding along the grass, and she smoothly scooped up her dropped greatsword. "You ordered the ambush on Yoshino?"
"Rosa Gigantea's favoured. The grand khagan of the Gigantea family's rotting tsardom, a duchy built on the fractured backs of shoeless slaves," snarled Sachiko. "Those wretched serfs that live and breed despairingly to provide you with more chaff to throw at us." Perhaps that disconnect between such pure beauty and her true fearsomeness made the bouton of Sei all the more frightening. Would this insufferable nightmare ever end? Sachiko's ambush had degenerated into a disaster. And she should have known that Sei would have the strategic savvy to disrupt her plans and the Foetida clan's counterattack.
"My boyars have hunted down Yoshino-san," said the White Princess, watching Sachiko's billowing cape and Rei's glimmering armour. "So I believed it necessary to come here. At the ends of the great forest, we meet again. From whence harmony came discord, hateful, torn souls must come together once more." Rei stared at Shimako in silence, before glancing at Sachiko. Her proposal would have to wait. "We three boutons declare war on each other, in the name of our grande soeurs," said Shimako calmly and expressionlessly.
"You truly believe you can defeat your seniors," sniffed Sachiko, putting aside her thoughts about a power struggle within the Foetida clan. Surely their tripartite civil war was complicated enough. "You are a strong if artless girl, Shimako-chan. Perhaps that is why I once tried to make you mine."
A moment of silence reigned before the three heirs to the Rose houses sprinted at each other, weapons raised to kill. One mighty clang, and the Red Baroness, Yellow Duchess, and White Princess were glaring at each other, their weapons pressing hungrily against the others'. A threefold cry of exertion, and they gracefully disengaged, spinning away and recovering themselves. They glanced up angrily, and once more they met each other's attacks with an unmatched, beautiful ferocity. Shimako blocked a swing from Sachiko's sword and deflected it to Rei's blade, entangling their weapons together with the curved edge of her axe. As her two seniors shouted in rage, the shortest of the three kicked Sachiko away with a forceful thrust of her boot, blocking Rei's swing with the twin axe in her free hand. Rei twisted back, slipping past Sachiko's lunging stab and having her crash clumsily into Shimako. The Baroness ducked under Shimako's swipe and rolled aside, letting Rei's sword and Shimako's axe to collide jarringly.
Shimako's eyes flashed as she quickly jammed Rei's larger, slower weapon between her more mobile ones, and Rei's eyes widened as she felt a knee thrusting into her stomach, visibly crushing the steel protecting her. The force of the White Princess's blow was so powerful that the Yellow Duchess could feel the winding pain through her crumpled plate armour. She gasped, clutching her midsection as Shimako struck her in the exposed neck with the metal hilt of her axe. Without so much as looking back at the falling woman, Shimako turned her attention to the Baroness, throwing all her power behind her ferocious weapons. Sachiko parried Shimako's first blow and tried to sweep the shorter girl with a swipe of her leg. But Shimako was impossibly nimble, and the wolf butt of her free axe dug deeply into Sachiko's abdomen, forcing her to shuffle back, doubled over and winded. The Baroness almost stumbled on a gnarled branch from the sharp pain, her calm, flawless pupils momentarily bulging and dilating in undignified disbelief.
Struggling up, Rei coughed through her ruined trachea, gasping as blood and bile from her throat spattered the grass.
Breathing hard and sweating profusely, Sachiko struggled to block Shimako's onslaught; she staggered and doddered in humiliating retreat as Shimako pressed her advantage, smashing her blades again and again against Sachiko's trembling sword. As with Rei, she finally caught the Red bouton's sword between her twin heads and, with a ruthless if supple twirl of her arms, wrenched it out of her hand. Fingers sore, Sachiko gasped, for the first time in fear rather than indignation, as she watched her sword fly spinning away. She glanced back in dread as Shimako raised her arms to sever her senior's sinews and limbs -
But instead, the descending axeheads met Rei's greatsword, whose owner had rolled in front of Sachiko and blocked Shimako's otherwise lethal blow. Shimako tottered back from the impact in surprise, and Sachiko was even more mortified. Rei's eyes were once more burning with emotion, her expression unreadable. Sachiko blinked in uncertainty. What in the great spirits' name was she thinking?
"Not yet, Shimako-chan," gritted Rei, blood trickling past her clenched teeth, her sword's blade chipped badly by Shimako's power. "You forget yourself."
Shimako's surprised expression settled into one of calm acceptance. What exactly did she suddenly understand? "Baroness. Duchess. You are both too strong for me. I cannot overcome you here, especially if you intend to work against me as one." She slowly backed away. "My boyars will surely be having a difficult time against Yoshino-san, and I have no time to allow her to break away from my contingent. Rosa Gigantea sends her most respectful regards," she declared, as two blonde women in long, fluffy brown coats and tall furry hats emerged from the now quiet trees. Their war ponies neighed, and one of them extended a hand. Shimako slipped away her axes along the belt within her coat and caught the boyar's arm, swinging up on the pony.
"Farewell and good day to you," she saluted, as the boyars beat a retreat, disappearing as quickly as they had come to retrieve Sei's heir.
Staggering up, the bloodied Rei began to laugh loudly, sheathing her sword. "She means we're not good enough for her. What do you think, Sachiko?" She glared at the panting Baroness. "I'll throw you this bone of a battle. I'm going after Shimako-chan. I can't let her kill Yoshino," snarled the Yellow bouton, her voice rising in hysterics. "Were it not for the treachery of the Gigantea family..." She whistled, and her horse galloped to her, whinnying fearfully. She hoisted herself up on its back. "Remember what I've told you. Lillian is groaning under the weight of its own institutions and traditions. Revolution is inevitable, and I don't know if I can stop it. Sooner or later, we will need each other's help."
"Go and save your precious lady," laughed Sachiko, almost forgetting that for a few precious moments, they had been talking like intimate friends. "Perhaps later, we can continue your little treacherous gossip."
Rei glared at Sachiko. "And I trusted you. Now I am lost, adrift, unable to serve onee-sama or Yoshino-chan."
Sachiko shrugged as Rei's horse galloped away past the trees before Sachiko, and before long the latter could hear the voices of her followers. "The Foetida women have retreated!" Sachiko glanced around, and from the few women rushing to her side, only a handful of women-at-arms remained alive. The Foetida counterattack had done its good work, and Sachiko loathed to think her entire battalion would have been destroyed were it not for Shimako's intervention. "Baroness! Rosa Chinensis en bouton! Are you alright?"
"Shut up!" she snapped angrily. She sniffed, staggering back up and limping to her sword, which lay silently on the ground, as if equally humiliated. Her burning, shaking legs struggled to move after her near-annihilation at her onetime prospective soeur's hands. "I am not injured. Tend to the survivors." She took up her blade and slid it into her sheath, sighing. Indeed, this time, both Duchess and Baroness had been trounced by the younger Princess. No wonder the totalitarian White Rose never cared for recruiting another soeur.
Was Rei right? Had she been too arrogant? And what could Yoshino possibly hope to achieve with her little insurrection, if Rei was telling the truth? What winds of change were blowing across the isle of the Lillian Kingdom?
Chinensis Palace
Naked and soaking wet, the crouching Baroness poured the fresh spring water from the unicorn glen from her wooden jug over her head once more, relishing the refreshing cold that jilted her deadened senses back to life. She blinked through the waterdrops, savouring its cool contrast with the warmth of the afternoon sun lilting past her wooden window. There was a particular bitterness about being bested by Rei. It felt worse than Shimako's victory. She hated to admit it, but there was so much to admire about that girl.
Oh, my dear Rei...
She pursed her lips. She could never say it out loud, but Hasekura Rei was honourable, so very brave, and had never lost a single battle. Today must have been devastating for her – not only had Sachiko managed to fight her to a stalemate with Shimako's unintentional help, but Yoshino had apparently been ambushed and injured by Gigantea boyars. In a sense, Shimako had saved her in a most humiliating and cruel fashion.
Yes, there was Princess Shimako, Rosa Gigantea's chosen, the White clan's only heir. Sei and Shimako made perhaps the continent's most formidable duo, because one could say they were almost of one mind. Unlike my occasional squabbles with onee-sama. I wonder how she will chide me this time for my failure... pondered Sachiko, cool water dripping from her wet lips and the tip of her nose. She bent her waist and set down her jug. Her bare feet glistened on the soaked wooden floor as she wondered how she should phrase her report to the Red Rose.
"Your Ladyship," came a quiet maid's voice.
"I don't wish to be disturbed," replied Sachiko, instinctively covering her body with a hand even though her servant did not presume to come in. "Come back later."
"Rosa Chinensis would like you to inspect the newest shipment of slave girls in the Great Hall," was the reply. "Taken from the shores Rosa Chinensis raided today. Some were wanderers. There are about thirty or forty this time."
Sachiko paused at the announcement.
"Those that please my eyes and ears can please my body later," she said quietly. "The rest can be divided for use among our brave knights. I'll come and see them soon."
Having refreshed herself and returned to her courtly outfit, Sachiko carefully sat down on her throne of ivory white, vermillion cape enveloping her tight red garments. She didn't wear her crown, however. After the recent dispiriting events, she was not in the mood for saturating her day with self-congratulatory ceremony. She clicked her fingers, her free hand resting on her lap. "Bring them in," she commanded, glancing down at the gaoler kneeling before her.
The keeper of the dungeons was appropriately garbed for the occasion, her thin body and skin bound painfully in tight, sinister black stripped from the pelts of forest bears. She rose from her knees and cracked her whiplash, which was studded with shards of stags' antlers. "Get in here, filth," she snarled, and the following sound coming from the side door of the hall was one of shuffles, sniffles, and terrified hiccups. The sight was sorry indeed, if an expected one. The first ten, barefoot women were marched before the Baroness's throne, their shivering bodies covered in the most undignified of moss-coloured rags. They trembled before the Chinensis heir, and two of them were sobbing openly, sniffling and struggling to hold back mucus from their noses and salty tears from their eyes. Smudged with soot and blood, those who could keep their composure simply stared straight ahead, refusing to let the gaze of Sachiko break them. These were peasant women, eking out the most minimal and modest of lives, until either the knights of Chinensis forced them to pay their taxes with their own bodies... or demanded that they hand over their daughters to be raised as loyal knights under the Red Rose.
Others were women who lived under the Foetida and Gigantea clans, who had seen their villages and cattle raided and plundered. Now they were free from their onetime rulers, although their new situation was hardly better.
"To the dungeons," said Sachiko quietly and menacingly, after several long moments of deliberation.
Several of the prisoners gasped and began to cry harder. Others remained steely-eyed, their lips trembling and chins wobbling courageously. The gaoler bashed her whip against the stone ground again, and the next line of women shuffled in. Sachiko liked these ones more. They looked younger, and several of them were quite beautiful. They all looked quite afraid, still. No - there was one, the fourth girl in rags among the ten, and she looked shaken and certainly unsure of herself. But her rich brown eyes did not betray any real fear, nor was it suppressed. There was no fear in this girl's expression, at least none of the fear that Sachiko knew. Her hair was of a deep brown, undone, its tresses were also long, although far less so than Sachiko's. The brunette lowered her head, her wrists visibly raw and sore from the chains. It could have been worse. The crying girls next to her were clenching their teeth at the metal eating into their bleeding flesh.
"Do you have a name, peasant?" asked the Baroness.
The girl's voice was hoarse, but clear and audible. "Yumi. Of Fukuzawa."
The gaoler raised an eyebrow behind her sadomasochistic, black fur mask. "Never heard of them. An insignificant clan, most likely."
Sachiko kept her eyes on the silent girl. "And are you afraid of me, young lady?" she asked, wondering what the answer could be.
Yumi's long hair was matted and dirtied, bangs pressed against her forehead, but something in her eyes told Sachiko, somehow, that she was not entirely forced against her will to come here. What could that mean? "I am indeed afraid," said Yumi, clearing her throat, "but not of you." She paused, and then spoke once more. "I am afraid for you, Your Ladyship. You are in grave danger."
"How dare you!" snarled the gaoler, raising her whip threateningly. "You babble rubbish!"
"Wait!" cried Sachiko, her interested piqued in a way she had forgotten for quite some time. "Of what?"
Yumi's eyes suddenly glinted, and Sachiko felt her usual confidence off-balance. "A snowstorm approaches."
"Don't play poetry with my life," demanded Sachiko. "Is there someone who wants to assassinate me? Are the other two Roses planning an invasion? Speak, or I will punish you!"
"I will reveal to you everything - when the stars are right - if you take me to your bedchamber," overrode Yumi loudly, aggressively, and the blushing prisoner lowered her head, as if regretting that she had to resort to such drastic words.
The gaoler shook her head in wonder. "This little girl is unbelievable. Shall I hang, draw, and quarter her, Rosa Chinensis en bouton?"
"Unbind her," ordered the Baroness, after a few moments' hesitation. Yumi's steadfast gaze remained on her, and she was becoming unnerved. She would not let this commoner off. "I will teach her a lesson myself."
"What about the others, Your Ladyship?" asked the surprised gaoler.
"Throw them into the dungeons, too. Break them as you please. But bring this one up to my bedchambers."
"Of... of course."
The girl called Yumi bowed her head, but Sachiko still could not detect fear in her lowered eyes. Nervousness, yes, timidity, certainly. But those were not to be confused with fear. And that fact disturbed Sachiko. Why? wondered the Baroness.
She shrugged to herself, rising from her throne.
She was going to her room, and she was about to find out.
Lying on her sumptuous bed, her cape flung aside, Sachiko observed the freshly-bathed girl in silence. Hands clasped in front of her tightly, Yumi looked visibly tired. She glanced around, looking at the skinned animals that decorated the bedroom, the harp in the corner, the sumptuous silk and satin that covered every pillow and sheet, and finally at the Baroness waiting on the bed. Yumi almost looked like as if her exhausted eyes would close - until Sachiko finally spoke.
"Pull those rags away from yourself. They don't deserve to cling to you, now that I have privileged you with a warm bath in my private springs."
Yumi blushed, not meeting Sachiko's gaze. Her arms twitched, but they refused to glide across her rags, to pull them away.
"You will take off your clothes for me. You will move, breathe, exist for my gaze," insisted Sachiko quietly. "There is nothing else you can do, slave girl. Are you suddenly afraid now? Now, when you displayed such blatant impertinence and daring before?"
"Yes, Madam," mumbled the naked girl mildly.
"And you will reveal to me, as you promised, why I am in... grave danger." The Baroness titled her head, smiling triumphantly. At last! She was back in control of the conversation.
"I must tell you something first, Sachiko-sama," said Yumi, as she slowly pulled at her fragile clothes. She discarded them effortlessly, and the tatters fell around her bare legs like feathers. She watched Sachiko massage her gaze over her bare skin, taking in the magnificent sight of the fragile girl's thighs, hips, breasts, shoulders, collarbone. "Forgive my rudeness, but..."
"What?" said Sachiko, once more annoyed at how brave the other still seemed. To some extent she felt envious. Here was this victim of plunder, naked, powerless, stripped of her rags and standing before a lounging noblewoman. Yet her bearing seemed so honest that it outshone Sachiko's own self-conceit, her bred majesty.
"I'm not a slave. I don't know where my parents are. But I can assure Sachiko-sama that I was not born a slave."
"Oh?" said Sachiko. "Are you saying you belonged to a landowning family that was raided by my vassals? That you deserve some recompense from me?" Sachiko sniffed. "Gold is not the problem. But you haven't told me why I am in peril, which was why I took an interest in you to begin with."
"No," said Yumi fearlessly, without the slightest trace of hesitation. "And I beg your forgiveness that I cannot disclose much of significance. I'm not sure if I know everything myself. But I do know why you chose to bring me up to your bedchamber, and I know what must pass between us. May I say it?"
Sachiko's brow rose. "If you must," she replied, trying to suppress her curiosity and failing. Once more, she was losing control. And this time, she wasn't sure if she wanted to fight it, to struggle against this magnetism from what she thought was just an intriguing slave girl.
Yumi blushed, well aware and mindful that she was the subject of the Baroness's gaze, the object of her undivided attention. She spoke again. "I know about the legend of the first Roses. They won glory because they loved each other with an unmatched passion." Yumi skirted her gaze to her right. To Sachiko's surprise, her voice began to rise in volume and intensity.
"Is there anything more inspiring, more dreadful, than a woman inflamed, thunderstruck, who has received the affection of her soeur? Petite or grande, it matters not. This unspoken, discreet courtship…" Yumi finally raised her head, her brave eyes meeting Sachiko's uncertain irises. "This seduction cannot be fulfilled unless it is a conspiracy signed between the two of us. We must both be complicit."
"You know an awful deal about the soeur traditions of courtship for your station," agreed Sachiko, watching Yumi's arm covering her bosom, like her very own little morning star. Shy and shining. "But you are right, I cannot deny that. There are few sights more glorious than the beaming, resolute countenance of a woman after she has been touched, her heart and loins set alight, by her chosen beloved."
This was strange, thought the Baroness to herself. Yes, Yumi looked most fragile, exposed as she was. But she was also assertive in her own way, driven, full of her own desires, hopes, and fears. And from the glimmer in her eyes, these hopes and desires seemed to bury themselves into Sachiko's heart, refusing to be denied by the usual casual dismissal on part of the Red bouton.
She never, ever had this stirring of emotion with Shimako.
"It is as if you can see straight through my soul. So you understand what this is all about, don't you? This unspoken courtship. This conspiracy of seduction between us."
Yumi nodded, smiling for the first time. And it was a beautiful smile.
"Why don't you see for yourself," she whispered. "You are the noble of this house. So I beg of you. Use me. Make me your squire. Nay..." The prisoner - no, she could no longer be called a prisoner - gestured tantalisingly at her small torso and waist. "Make me your soeur."
Silence.
"I don't know what to say to that proposition. No one has ever offered themselves to be my petite soeur before. But I am gratified I summoned you to my bedchamber, Yumi," confessed Sachiko quietly, surrendering for the moment. It just felt easier. This girl had a power, a pull she had never been able to attain herself. Of course she would feel weak before it. "You may step forward. You no longer need to move according to my command."
"I am honoured my bare feet stepped into the most intimate echelon of your presence," replied the younger woman. She closed her eyes, as if it was all too much. "Perhaps this was the destiny the great spirits intended for me. Perhaps I will discover that I loved you before I met you."
"Who knows? Perhaps I loved you before you were born," whispered Sachiko, her heart pounding faster, much to her consternation. "Wait. I didn't..." Her eyes reflected her momentary fear and shame. She wasn't used to blurting out so much. And more disconcertingly, what had she just uttered? Had she gone mad? What was possessing her?
"My Lady has a strange way of denying herself," murmured the cryptic girl, pressing onward and harder. Unlike Sachiko, her eyes never faltered. Indeed, they swam with an almost supernaturally powerful determination. "I will repent in any way you wish for being unable to tell you everything. But at night, I was visited by premonitions, by dreams. I dreamt that if I was by your side, you might be safer."
Who in Saint Chinensis' name was this mysterious girl?
"I have locked you in here, stripped you bare. You falter not, then. You wish me to impart to you the courtly way of soeurship..." muttered the bouton, feeling almost overpowered. "To show you what it's like for one girl to deeply, truly, love another..."
The naked Yumi nodded, hair spilling down her shoulders, her soft lips and eyes parted sensually. "From your perfect, perfect hands... Great Chinensis Baroness... My Lady. Teach me the way of courtship, woman to woman. I will drink your every word and touch, swallow all your counsel and make it my own."
Sachiko's eyes were narrow, her throat dry. It was as if Yumi's languid, submissive expression was possessed by an authority of its own. She nodded, and Yumi stepped forward. "May I touch you, mistress?" asked Yumi, her shaking hands slowly pressing on her own nipples. "May we comfort each other?"
"Address me with that most intimate, overpowering finality, and then perhaps you may," whispered Sachiko, as she raised herself and opened her arms. No longer could she resist. "Stay here with me."
Yumi slowly pressed a knee on the bed. Pouting, she climbed on, crawling towards the almost paralysed Sachiko. The other could only draw the naked girl into her arms. She stared down at the sensual Yumi, who was melting into her embrace. Sachiko's heart ached, ached like never before. "Who in the nine worlds are you?" she whispered desperately, cupping Yumi's flushing cheek.
"I cannot say yet," murmured Yumi, gazing back up passionately. "I am so sorry. My body and heart will be your compensation."
"You had better have some answers for me later. Now, tear off my clothes."
The slave-turned-soeur, seduced-turned-seductress's eyes shone as Sachiko began to kiss her, her fingers sliding along her back. Her irises were completely calm as she gave herself to her new mistress, obediently grasping at her satin and ripping it away so that they could touch as one flesh. And Yumi's eyes remained calm even as the couple began to sigh and moan together, and her thoughts remained crystal-clear even while the crying Sachiko opened up herself and began to discover emotions she had never, ever, felt with any other slave girl.
Staring at the wall behind her new mistress, Yumi slowly stroked the back of Sachiko's head, clutching her hair as the bouton held her tightly.
For the moment, the Baroness was safe.
Now, the war that would wilt all roses could begin.
NEXT ACT: THE BLACK SHIPS OF HANADERA ARRIVE ON LILLIAN'S SHORES...